Review

Review Summary: Exit Ten have matured; they have created a warm, pure metalcore effort, revitalizing an otherwise stale genre, and in the process have launched themselves onto a higher stage.

The melodic metalcore group from Reading UK, have already shown listeners that they are highly capable musicians. The music was promising with their debut full length Remember The Day and displayed some of the potential that the band had not yet quite reached. There were a couple of things missing.
Firstly, the vocals were at odds with the music behind it creating an awkward contrast taking away from the album’s playback value and secondly, some of the transitions within the instrumentation broke the flow of tracks giving a disjointed feel to the songs. Fortunately, Give Me Infinity has remedied both those issues and presents the listener with a superb album, that is highly catchy and memorable.

First impressions leave the listener with intelligent lyricism. Ryan Redman’s crooning vocal passages are melodic and suit the music down to a “T”. His vocals are warm, and make use of a rather incredible range. The vocals captivate the listener from start to finish and add to the album’s overall mood, which remains largely up beat and positive. Instrumentally, the band has come back a notch; focusing on a more simplistic approach. Not only does this suit Redman’s vocals better it also highlights how Exit Ten have matured as a metalcore group. Whilst some of the technicality has been removed from the music tracks remain thick, vibrant and for the most part warm. The clever use of layering during tracks all add to the warm and positive mood of the album. Symphonic elements complement clean toned guitars and ringing chords, creating mini climaxes and crescendos before leading into contrasting, yet tasteful quiet sections.

Give Me Infinity gives off a different energy than that of Remember The Day and This World They'll Drown. Obviously, the music is not as aggressive, shedding light on a more conventional rock sound rather than a focus on groove and the use of breakdowns. Many will see this as a positive change from the countless breakdown toting bands that have emerged onto the metalcore scene in recent years. Removing some of these features has benefited Exit Ten’s overall sound greatly improving on their original sound and allowed for the band to approach their music in a more cohesive manner. This can be mainly found in the vocal passages complementing the instrumentation, rather than providing an odd contrast.

While Exit Ten has ‘softened’ there sound, there remains the typical edge that can be found on their previous records. Usually weaving in and out of melodic passages under melodic vocals, it adds to the listener’s initial interest with tracks and heightens the album’s play back value. One element that could be considered the most consistent includes the stick work of Chris Steele (one of the three Steele brothers in Exit Ten) here his off beat snare work reinforces the rhythmic approach Exit Ten has on their music. Making use of snare accents and transitional symbol work Chris maintains that even tempo approach, adding the occasional symbol crash just to quietly reinforce the listeners attention. Each separate unit of instrumentation may not hold anything too special for the listener, but with the band’s cohesive approach, these elements combine expertly, complementing each other showcasing the band’s natural talent and promoting Redman’s vocals in a very positive light.

Overall, it is easy to see that Exit Ten has matured and developed in a way that is not only pleasing compared to their past releases but marks a new page in this UK’s five piece career. There is a very real possibility that Give Me Infinity may just push Exit Ten onto better and bigger stages.